What Now?

THANKS

Thanks to all you listeners, and to those who have supported me through the years and especially through this most recent hiatus. Also thanks to Marco of the Storia d’Italia podcast (https://italiastoria.com/) for giving authenticity to the Italian quote–which, incidentally, I believe I mistranslated somewhat: It’s normally rendered as “when one Pope dies, we make another”, giving additional bluntness to the meaning.

IMAGE CREDIT: By Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service (Photographer name), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34828249 (Via Wikipedia)

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to Popeular History: History through Pope Colored Glasses. My name is Gregg, and this is another special housekeeping episode.

Vice-Pope Mrs Popeular History and I have a running joke about my superpower, namely that when I say something, it automatically becomes not true. Which, I know, isn’t a great power for a fact-based podcaster to have, I mean, there’s a reason I haven’t told you about this ability of mine earlier. But you can see it at work here, with me announcing just days ago that Popeular History’s hiatus would carry on through at least June, and now, well, I assume this isn’t news to you since you’re the sort of person to tune into this sort of show and it’s been a day, but Pope Francis died early this morning. May he rest in peace, and may he find more mercy than anyone deserves in the Court of the Just Judge, as we would all hope to find for ourselves, and as we should all hope for others.

In light of that, I’d like to announce that I am revoking my recent proclamation of continued hiatus, meaning yes, Popeular History is back, at least for the duration of the present Sede Vacante, as long as I can physically manage it and my efforts continue to receive both nihil obstats and imprimaturs from Vice-Pope Mrs Popeular History, who, as  it turns out, does *not* automatically succeed Francis as Pope. Apparently, there’s a whole different process for that. Who knew?

Anyways, here’s what to expect. First, as much as I legitimately hate it, it is time to say goodbye to Pope Francis. You will be seeing an obituary on this feed soon, and there will be more tributes and reflections on his papacy coming now that it has concluded. Catholics do not pray only for the living, it’s important to pray for the dead as well, so I would encourage you to pray for Pope Francis to find rest in God’s merciful embrace if you’re willing to pray. We’ll conclude this episode with a brief Ave Maria–known in English as a Hail Mary, and I’ll go ahead and do an English version as well–for that purpose, for Pope Francis’ repose.

After some appropriate reflection on Pope Francis and his legacy, there will be the matter of laying him to rest. Once I know when the funeral will be, information that will likely become available after the first General Congregation tomorrow morning, I will make every effort to plan for some form of livestream coverage, possibly as part of a larger group. The general expectation is that the funeral will be this weekend, I’ll keep you all posted. As of now, Francis’ body is already in an oak coffin in preparation for lying in state, and the Papal apartments have been sealed with wax as per custom. Within the next week, Pope Francis’ remains will ultimately make their way to a storeroom in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, or in English, Saint Mary Major. And I just have to acknowledge that “when I go out, stick me in the closet” is *very* on brand for Pope Francis. Though it’s also worth noting that it’s not like there’s you know, a lot of free space for dead popes in the highest tier of Rome’s churches, so even if it weren’t as on brand for him, well, needs must and all that.

Anyways, after Pope Francis is laid to rest in an old closet, any reluctance to talk about the upcoming conclave on my part will vanish. Granted, lots of folks are already taking bets and asking for my lines and predictions, but, you know, I’m not planning to be focusing on that so much this week. This is the time for goodbyes.

However, as the Italians say, “Morto un papa se ne fa un altro”: “when the Pope dies, we make a new one” (Marco recording). And so next week, after the funeral, I’ll begin to look in earnest at the conclave process, including looking at the Cardinals to hopefully get a first glimpse of the new Pope. Ideally, of course, I’d love to be able to point to an existing episode on whoever is elected when the time comes. And I’ve got a decent chance of being able to do that thanks to Cardinal Numbers: so far we’ve talked about over 50 Cardinals on this feed, and I’ve got dozens more basically researched and scripted, who were awaiting just a bit of touching up before recording and editing closer to their release date. Which actually sounds REALLY promising when you consider the theoretical cap of 120 Cardinal-Electors you’re going to hear more about soon in the context of the fact that there are currently more Cardinal Electors than that and no apparent provisions for dealing with that situation. Bottom line, of the 135 current Cardinal electors, I’ve only got about 30 that I haven’t gone in-depth on in some fashion. To be clear, I’m not going to have every Cardinal elector covered in time. It’s just not possible with work and family continuing apace. But you’re going to see a lot from me in the coming weeks, especially once we’re officially in Conclave mode after the funeral.

Which brings us back to where started this chat. Let’s close tonight by praying for Pope Francis’ repose, first in Latin, then in English. I’ll be doing both parts of the Hail Mary, since Vice-Pope Mrs Popeular History went to bed a while ago.

In nomine Patri, et Filii, et Spiritui Sancti amen:

Áve María, grátia pléna, Dóminus técum. Benedícta tu in muliéribus, et benedíctus frúctus véntris túi, Iésus. Sáncta María, Máter Déi, óra pro nóbis peccatóribus, nunc et in hóra mórtis nóstrae. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.